Some online video players give you the option to add or subtract delay e.g. by ±0.5s to subtitles to manually sync them to the video currently playing. However I become functionally dyslexic when it comes to actually figuring out how much delay has to be added. I end up randomly adding or subtracting delay and make it work through trial and error.
Is there some rule of thumb I could follow instead to systematically sync subtitles?
Trial and error, basically. Change the delay, wait a second and then see if it makes it better or worse (at least for VLC there is a delay in the setting actually changing the sync in my experience so you need to give it a second to see the difference). Repeat until it’s perfect.
It also helps to do this in a dialogue heavy scene so you can match the audio to mouth movement.
There must be a better way to do this though. I waste too much time tinkering with the syncing at times.I realised what I’m asking for is essentially a modified version of ‘trial and error’. I should clarify that I’m looking for a technique I could follow to instead of clicking buttons and modifying values by pure randomness and hoping the subtitles sync.
Every video player has a slightly different codebase. I imagine all of these are going to be a hair different when it comes to timing.